Unexpected Circumstances
by Yumetaka Kourui
Summary: A girl from our universe wakes up to find herself in the Naruto world. Kenzie gets the adventure she'd always dreamed of, but it comes at a great price with many obstacles. Will she overcome them? Or be lost in the twists of fate? OC/AU
1. Prologue: What If?

**Unexpected Circumstances**

Sorry that I'm starting a new story when my other one is barely started... I just had to get this out of the way while it was still fresh in my mind. I'll probably write one or two chapters of this and only continue if people like it. Otherwise I'll focus solely on Where Shadows Dwell (I'm still going to work on that, though.) You should just be glad I dropped my other two or three stories for now.

NOTE: I changed the summary from what it was. I completely twisted the storyline, it's very different. I exchanged one main element of the plot for a different one, though the original main element MAY come back... I'll have to ask my friend. She's good with that stuff.

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_What if..._

What if you could have one thing you've always wanted, always dreamed?

What if you could start a new life with the knowledge you have now?

What if you could change the world and knew exactly how to do it?

_…But…_

What if the entire fate of the world rested on your shoulders?

What if the future could be changed, for better or worse, by every seemingly insignificant word you say?

What if the impossible decided it didn't like never happening and made itself possible?

What if your entire world turned upside down and you found yourself lost in the chaos?

What if, instead of simply losing your way, you lost a part of yourself and didn't know if you'd ever find a path to follow?

What if everyone you cared about disappeared and you were slowly forgetting about them whether you wanted to remember them or not?

What if there was no one to help you when you were in danger or when you were unsure...

_...What if..._

What if, in this unfamiliar world, you were all alone?


	2. Wishes and Dreams

**Chapter 2: Wishes and Dreams**

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_Don't cry when the sun is gone because the tears won't let you see the stars. – Violeta Parra_

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'_Oddly enough, eighteen doesn't feel any different than seventeen, hell; it feels no different than sixteen. The only good thing is that I'm finally considered an adult and am out of high school. Whatever.'_

The newly-eighteen-year-old woman flopped on her bed and closed her eyes, falling into a dreamless sleep.

-=-=-=-=-=Flashback=-=-=-=-=-

It was the middle of June, shortly after the end of school.

"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Kenzie! Happy birthday to you!!"

The song was followed by clapping and cheering as the grey-eyed brunette known as Kenzie thought of a wish before blowing out the candles.

'_These things never come true so I'll wish something impossible. Hmmm… I wish… I wish I was in the Naruto world with some sort of special ability, Kekkei Genkai, a natural talent for shinobi-related stuff, or something else along those lines, that I was younger to give me more of a chance to train, and that I'd have a chance to meet at least one of the main characters, meaning the Konoha Twelve or the Sand Siblings. Well, that's my wish.'_

Kenzie then proceeded to blow out the eighteen candles on her birthday cake. If you can't tell, she was a fan of Naruto. She adored both the anime and manga though she preferred the manga. Why was she so specific with her wish? She didn't want to tempt fate too badly. If she had just said "I wish I was in the Naruto world," that might have ended up with her as some random person in some non-shinobi village with an inability to use chakra. Or some person that was doomed to die when a random town was destroyed just a day after she arrived in the Naruto world. She didn't want that.

Kenzie was a realist, (and a full-scale pessimist, but we won't get into that right now,) so she knew that wishes just don't come true, not that kind of wish, anyway. Dreams, they can come true. Wishes, not the magic-wanting birthday wishes. Wishes that come true are either pure chance or the doing of a kind person, and she was pretty sure nobody had the ability to send her to a fictional world.

The cake was then dished out to all of the guests which included her parents, older brother, grandparents, and uncle. Her brother, Kris, was two years older than Kenzie having turned twenty just a few days prior. He was funny and fun-loving, but he and Kenzie weren't that close. She wasn't that close to her parents, either. She was always more of a loner, not caring much for the company of other people. Because of this trait, Kenzie never made any good friends, only a few she wasn't that close to.

After everyone had eaten their cake it was time for Kenzie to open her presents. Most of them were money or gift cards along with one or two more expensive gifts that she had been wanting. All in all it was a good birthday considering Kenzie wasn't much for parties of any kind.

Getting bored with sitting and talking, she bade good night to her family and headed to her bedroom, not bothering to take off her jeans and purple t-shirt with a swirly pattern on the front, which gets us to where we are now.

-=-=-=-=-=End of Flashback=-=-=-=-=-

When morning came, instead of waking up to find herself on her bed in her bedroom, Kenzie looked around to see a relatively empty space. The endless expanse of grass under the cloud-spotted blue sky had an unrealistic feel to it. Her gaze passed the occasional tree and every now and then flitted over a patch of colorful flowers. After a time that was both eternally long and infinitesimally short, a figure appeared out of nowhere about twenty feet from Kenzie. It was a woman whose age was impossible to guess. She looked young, maybe twenty, but impossibly wise and knowing. She had long, straight blond hair and green eyes, and was wearing a flowing green dress which stopped just above her bare feet.

The woman made her way towards Kenzie who stood up, green eyes locking with grey.

"Do you know why you're here?" The woman's voice echoed all around.

"No." Her own voice seemed to fade into the distance.

"Really? You're a logical thinker, haven't you come to a conclusion? Ah, perhaps you focus too much on what you know, what is certain."

"Where am I?"

"Hm? Oh, that's right. You're in a different realm, similar to the one which contains the place you would call Heaven, but this is a solitary realm, only used when I choose to meet someone, or when there is to be a transfer of a soul from one world to another."

'_Is this a dream…?'_

"Nope, I can't say that it is. You made a wish and I'm going to see to it that it happens. But that doesn't mean you'll get to have your little wish without a price. No, there's got to be something that you pay to get what you want. And I know just what that thing is. But that doesn't matter, you'll still have your shinobi talent or whatever it is you wanted. Just so you know, the world you're heading into only speaks Japanese, but that shouldn't be a problem for you, right? And I'll grant the other part of your wish and make you five years old. Around the same age as the 'rookie nine' or whatever you people have dubbed the three Konoha teams. Don't worry about meeting the 'main characters' as you call them. You'd have to try painfully hard to avoid them." The woman smiled in a way that hinted something was going to happen.

Shortly after she had time to let the woman's words sink in, the world seemed to blur around her, and Kenzie's vision darkened.

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Don't worry; I plan to make the next chapter longer. This was just the perfect ending spot for this section. Be glad I didn't cut off before the other-world part. Hopefully I'll start writing more now. :) Please review!


	3. Darkness and Doubt

**Chapter 3: Darkness and Doubt**

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Sorry, but this chapter isn't very good due to writer's block in the form of not knowing how to achieve a certain result. Notice that a little bit into the chapter I switch from calling her Kenzie to calling her Yume. Just so you know.

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_Without a dream to light your way, the world is a very dark place. – Marrion Zimmer Bradley_

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"Japanese"

"_English_"

'_Thinking'_

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Kenzie's senses slowly came to awareness. The first thing she noticed was that she was lying on sand; desert, probably, because there was no sound of water nearby. The only other observations she could make were that there was almost no wind and she was in the shade, whether it be from an object or simply because it was night. She opened her eyes.

But she didn't see.

Kenzie blinked once or twice before deciding this is what the woman decided would be taken from her; her eyesight. There was no doubt that this wasn't a dream. It was real.

'… _I'm blind. For some reason I'm not that devastated, at least, not right now. I suppose it might hit me hard later, but I doubt it. I'm actually somewhat okay with being blind… the only problem is that most of the things I would do to get away from the world were based on sight. I would read, I would draw, I would write, I would watch the river flowing by, or look at the trees swaying in the wind… but at least I can still dream.'_

She sat up slowly, noticing that she had the body of a five-year-old, finding herself near a wall somewhere. Kenzie leaned her head back on the wall, continuing her thoughts.

'_So… does this mean I'm somewhere in the Naruto world? A desert… maybe I'm in Suna? It doesn't feel like a dream at all… Maybe-'_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

"Daijoubu desu ka?"

'_That's right. This world speaks Japanese. Daijoubu desu ka… ah, I remember. "Are you alright?" And to say "yes, I'm fine…"'_

"Hai. Daijoubu desu."

Kenzie was a little surprised at how young her own voice sounded, but it did make sense. She _was_ five years old now. Her dark grey eyes continued staring, unseeing, at the ground in front of her as some of her straight shoulder-length brown hair was blown in her face by the breeze, occasionally hiding her dark grey eyes from view.

"Do you have a home?"

'_He's talking to a five year old so by home he means place of residence as opposed to a place I feel I belong… so a one word answer is in order… iie-no.'_

"Iie."

"What about parents?"

'_I don't have any on this world… maybe that's a good thing. Ahhh… but I can't just say "no, I don't have parents"… I know…'_

"Hai, but they abandoned me."

'…_I need to work on getting my voice to sound like I'm sad or upset. Lack of visible emotion might not be a good thing… I've always been decent at appearing to feel something that I don't, so I'll just need to make sure to do that.'_

"Why did they abandon you?"

'_Blindness has me completely disoriented; therefore I can't lie about that. They'd find out soon anyway.'_

"I'm blind." She said in the shyest way she could muster, which, at this point in time, barely passed off as shy at all.

"You're blind?"

"Hai. I woke up yesterday and I couldn't see anything."

'_It's a good enough excuse. If I was blind my whole life I'd be relatively used to it, so saying that wouldn't work. Being blind is troublesome, and I don't care if it makes me sound like Shikamaru by thinking it. What's true is true.'_

"So you don't have a place to live?"

"I do if I'm allowed to sleep here, wherever 'here' is."

"What would you do for food?"

"I don't eat much. I'd find a way to get food. Or I'd die of starvation." Kenzie replied with a shrug.

"You'd be okay with that?" the man said with obvious disbelief in his voice.

'_Yep. Not the most pleasant way to die, I imagine, but still. Anyway, if my memory is correct, "un" means yep, or yeah. It seems to fit better with this situation. Or maybe that's just me… who cares; it's still an affirmative answer.'_

"Un. If I said I felt I had a reason to live, I'd be lying."

It seemed the man didn't have a response for that.

Response or no, the man decided to try a different approach at talking to the five-year-old in front of him.

"Watashi wa Yashamaru desu."

'_Wait…"I'm Yashamaru?" I don't like him because of what he did, or rather, will do, to Gaara, but I can't just refuse to talk to him without a reason to back it up… and I need a name. Ah, I know… "dream"'_

"Watashi wa Yume desu." From this time forward, Kenzie was now Yume.

"Since you don't have anywhere to live… would you like to live with me? I've got an extra room in my house that you could stay in. What do you think, Yume-san?"

'_I don't really want to. I'll be fine. I need to say something along the lines of 'sorry, but no. I don't want to cause problems'… something like that.'_

"Sumimasen, demo… I don't want to intrude. I'd rather die of hunger than be a burden, wasting your time and money."

'…_Now I sound suicidal… maybe I should have phrased that differently… I _really_ don't want to owe anyone anything, though, Yashamaru least of all. He deserves to die for what he's going to do to Gaara.'_

Yume was unsure exactly what to do… May as well let what is going to happen, happen, she supposed.

Apparently Yashamaru had come up with a plan.

"How old are you, Yume-san?"

"What's the date today?"

She didn't know if it was the same as her world. All she knew was that she was five.

"It's July 28th."

"I'm five; I'll be six in about two months." Well, assuming her birthday was the same.

"So you could be starting at the academy this year… but you'd need a parent to sign you up. If you want we could go to the Kazekage and we could find someone to adopt you. You could train to be a shinobi. It would be a bit harder for you since you're blind, but if you're determined, you could become a great shinobi, Yume-san"

'_So that was his plan… but do I really want to go to the academy? I would probably either fail from lack of ability or be failed because they don't like me. Kind of like what happened to my brother in high school. He did what was required but the teacher didn't like him and said otherwise. But that might not happen… why do there have to be tough choices in life? Why can't it already be chosen? I can adapt just fine, but making choices that affect my whole future… and these aren't choices I had before, either, so I don't have any way to know if it's a good thing or a bad thing… though I may be able to learn some ninja techniques on my own… basically I could become a shinobi either way, one way is officially, the other unofficially. I hate choices…'_

"I'm not sure if I want to go to the academy."

"You may as well try it for a year, don't you think? You might really enjoy it."

'_Or it might make my life living hell… this guy is impossible to reason with as long as I keep pretending to be a shy, ignorant five-year-old. I suppose I could learn actual ninjutsu or genjutsu at the academy rather than the two or three things I would be able to figure out from watching and listening or simply on my own. All I could figure out on my own would be basic chakra manipulation, taijutsu, and _maybe_ a ninjutsu that doesn't require hand seals, like rasengan. Fine, I give.'_

"…I suppose, but how would I do anything? I'm blind. I'd probably get beaten up during any taijutsu tests and I would fail at any transformation jutsu."

Yume wasn't sure if she'd _ever_ get used to sounding like a little girl. Though, she had to admit, it was a bit amusing to imagine what she sounded like to other people; a five-year-old talking with the calmness, intelligence, logic, and slight pessimism of her adult self. She was a pessimist to the end, but it actually didn't translate through to her speech too much, not more than her logic commanded, anyway.

"Give it a try. You might be better than most of the kids there. C'mon, please, Yume-san?"

'_I hate guys like him. He's charismatic… he managed to turn the conversation, at least from other people's points of view, from me not wanting to be a burden to him begging me to try a year at the academy. Refusing won't do me any good; I'd end up in front of the Kazekage to get adopted by someone either way… I hate him.'_

Yume sighed, "Alright…"

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For the chapter dealing with the academy (that's probably the chapter after the next one)… should it be described the way Yume would see it (still third person, but described without the sight aspects), or should it be described from a normal view (meaning saying what everything looked like)? And what about the descriptions of the rest of the village? I'll add some vision aspects (such as "the golden sand shifted beneath her feet" or stuff like that) but should I make it completely vision-based or should it be hardly at all vision-based? The next chapter won't have very much vision-related stuff, but it will have a little. After that, though, I'll go on whatever the popular opinion is.


	4. Ideas and Beginnings

**Chapter 4: Ideas and Beginnings**

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The current vote stands:

Village described completely with scenery to see how it contrasts with Yume's view as well as some description during her point of view. I'm thinking maybe I'll have little breaks in the story that would be used to describe the village outside of Yume's view, as well.  Whatever I can make work, I guess! Thanks, xoxoklim and NummyCuppyCake, for the specific votes! It helps when it's not a vague thought like most people tend to put. Again, thanks.

Note that the style may change some in this chapter, so sorry about that, and sorry if the chapter isn't any good.

I'm getting a system worked out to where I write more and my time is more evenly spread over my stories. Hopefully it'll also help my motivation problem.

I also hope that I haven't been going overboard with the Japanese stuff. I have to say it may get worse… I'm taking Japanese as my second language (and I can now put together sentences from scratch...). You may have to kick me once or twice if I use Japanese more than I should. Thanks!

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_Better by far you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad. – Christina G. Rossetti_

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"Japanese"

"_English_"

'_Thinking'_

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'_I hate guys like him. He's charismatic… he managed to turn the conversation -at least from other people's points of view- from me not wanting to be a burden all the way to him begging me to try a year at the academy. Refusing won't do me any good; I'd end up in front of the Kazekage to get adopted by someone either way… I hate him.'_

_Yume sighed, "Alright…"_

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Yume stood up, surprisingly coordinated in her five-year-old body. Not perfect, but better than she expected when it came to adjusting to her body shrinking. She could tell she had on pants and a short-sleeve shirt as well as shinobi-style sandals on her feet. Yashamaru took hold of her hand and led the way, probably either to his house or to the Kazekage tower. Yume had to consciously focus on not pulling away from the unwelcomed touch.

The evening sun bathed the entire village in a golden light, unseen by Yume, and the air started cooling.

Yashamaru spoke up, "It's just a little over a month until the academy starts; class begins on the first of September. If you want, Yume-san, I could train you some so you would have a bit of a head start."

"Okay," she replied, for lack of a better response, her thoughts focused on other matters.

After a few more minutes of walking, the two of them reached a one-story building. Yashamaru opened the door and him and Yume stepped in.

"Welcome to my home! Feel free to wander around, the living room is to the left and the hallway with a bathroom and the spare bedroom-now your bedroom-is to the right. I have to go schedule an appointment with the Kazekage so I'll be back in a few minutes. Ja, Yume-san!"

"Ja."

The good-bye was somewhat distracted because Yume's mind was currently elsewhere. She heard Yashamaru closing the door behind him and she focused on her thoughts.

'_I'm in the Naruto world. I'm in Suna. I will be joining the ninja academy in about a month. I am five years old, six in about two months if I go by my old birthday. I'm blind. And Gaara's uncle, Yashamaru, just offered to train me before the academy starts. I hate Yashamaru, but arguments are useless if the only reason I have for hating him is something he hasn't done yet… I may as well check out the room I'll be staying in.'_

For once Yume decided to do something to get away from her thoughts rather than doing something to get away from the world and be alone with her thoughts.

Her fingers lightly brushing against the wall, Yume made her way down the hall to her right. She came upon an open door, but the slight smell of the cleaners indicated it to be the bathroom. She arrived at the point where the wall that her fingers were brushing against on her right side turned at a ninety degree angle creating the wall in front of her. Continuing her hand along the turn, Yume discovered another door, this one closed, probably the spare bedroom. The place she refused to call hers. It wasn't _her_ room; it was an extra bedroom in Yashamaru's house.

Yume moved her hand along the door until she found the doorknob at about three inches above her eye level on the right side of the door. She turned the knob and pushed in slightly, the door moving smoothly at her touch. She walked into the room feeling a little bit of moving air caress her face, probably from an open window somewhere in the room. Pausing for a few seconds, Yume determined the window was directly across from the door.

She wandered around the room a little bit, fingers brushing along the wall which allowed her to discover what appeared to be a dresser, a nightstand, a table with a chair, and a bed. After finding the room to be comfortably small but not cramped, Yume went over to the bed, climbed up, and laid on her back, head resting on the pillow, closing her eyes.

'_So what do I already know as far as shinobi skills go…? Hand signs... Thank god I already know the hand signs. Those would be a pain to have to learn now that I'm blind. I think I know the hand signs for Kage Bunshin no Jutsu… so once I control my chakra I may be able to make a shadow clone as long as I have enough chakra. Learning jutsu won't be as hard as it could have been… someone can just tell me the hand signs to make it. I wonder if I can sense my chakra…'_

With that last thought, Yume sat up and brought her hands into the traditional Tora, or Tiger, seal. She focused towards where her chakra coils were supposedly located. Yume wasn't sure, she may have been imagining it, but she thought she felt a little bit of power. She then tried focusing it to her hands which remained in their position. This time she could feel some of the power move to where her hands rested in the Tiger hand sign. A tiny bit of power, though, hardly any at all.

Yume dropped her arms and flopped her head back down onto the pillow with a sigh. She wasn't so sure about this shinobi stuff.

'_But, if I can obtain really good chakra control, I may be able to find a way to 'see'. Don't most girls have naturally good chakra control? I suppose that's one fact in my favor.'_

Now that she knew she had no skills other than knowing hand signs, she decided to try to bring her mood up by thinking about _potential_ skills.

'_Taijutsu… I suppose I could get flexible and fast, but using that in an actual battle would be nearly impossible, unless, perhaps, I could figure out a way to use chakra to see. Ninjutsu… I could be good enough, but will I have enough power? If I do, then I might actually be pretty good. Genjutsu… I wouldn't be able to do the chameleon-based genjutsu because I can't see my surroundings to imitate them. The same goes for henge jutsu. I _might_ be able to pull one off of some random person of my imagination, but if the academy teachers do what Iruka does and have the people transform into exact copies of him, I won't be able to do that. I may be able to learn full illusion genjutsu, like one resembling a nightmare. I could try to learn to use sound like the Oto shinobi do, use it to mess up peoples' senses. I can also play the flute so I may be able to find some genjutsu for that. Wow. Who would have thought that my best bet is genjutsu unless I have a lot of chakra for ninjutsu or can perfect my 'sight' for taijutsu? Well, now I know what to aim for. I still say being blind is troublesome, though.'_

Yume voiced the key word of that final sentence aloud, "Mendokusai…" _What a pain…_

She decided to spend a bit of time daydreaming while she still had the chance. The only problem, however, was that she _really_ wanted to avoid daydreaming about the Naruto world now that she was in it. In the end, though, she ended up daydreaming about a few different Naruto crossovers that she had been writing before abruptly turning five again. It was only a little while after that Yume remembered to be clear that those weren't wishes, they were daydreams. She really didn't want to end up being part of an odd little crossover that some all-powerful being decided to have fun to see what happens when ninjas and another random fictional world cross. No thank you.

It was getting a bit chilly so Yume got up and figured out how to close the window. Thank goodness it was your average bottom-half-slides-up window. It was hardly a minute after that when she heard a familiar -albeit disliked- voice coming from the front door. "Yume-san, I'm back! We have a meeting with the Kazekage tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and I brought a guest!"

'_Kuso.'_

Yume was never one to swear, but she had a _really_ bad feeling.

'_Please let it not be any of the six people in the village I know, especially the youngest three. Please let it not be one of the sand siblings. _Please_ let it not be someone I know, _especially_ not Gaara. I _really_ don't want to deal with Gaara right now.'_

As she walked out of the bedroom towards the front door, Yume prayed to whatever gods existed that the guest would _please_ not be Gaara, _anyone_ but Gaara. She wasn't stupid enough to extend her preferences of who _not_ to be the guest to contain Gaara's older brother and sister as well. That would be trying her luck too much.

Alas, the gods didn't feel like listening.

"Yume-san, I'd like you to meet Gaara-sama. Gaara-sama, this is Yume-san. You're both about the same age."

'_Why me?'_

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Sorry, short chapter, but I have NO clue where to go from here. I mean, I know what's going to happen, I even have a lot of the details, but I need to figure out how to MAKE it happen, with transitions and all that. I've had this much written for a while so I may as well post it up and decide that writing the other half of the chapter is a lost cause at the moment. I'll work on it, though. Sorry that it's short! I wanted to have it twice as long or even more.

Thank you SO MUCH, 88-x-NekoNinja-x-88, for helping me past where I was stuck! If it wasn't for you I'd probably still be on the first chapter of all of my stories. MAYBE second chapter (but that's pushing it).

Reviews motivate me! (The longer the review, the more motivated I get! Well, unless it's telling me how awful of a writer I am or how my ideas are terrible… but that's a given. I doubt that very many people would be motivated by being told they are no good at what they're trying to do.)


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